ArkhamGlobe

Christmas Vacation always gets shown on Christmas Eve here in Sweden and I always end up watching it, I think I've done so for like 9 or 10 straight years.

Notre musique. It's Godard damnit!

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Neo Geo Todd Rundgren - The Ballad of Rundgren John Cale - Slow Dazzle

Breakfast - none Lunch - some pasta Dinner - a pork chop with fries and some salad

No, Inc is right. Tonight's the Night. I also have Blood on the Tracks and Slow Dazzle as my runners-up.

I've always liked the intro to The Pogues' Fairytale of New York as well, with Shane McGowan crooning "It was Christmas Eve babe... In the drunk tank". I also greatly enjoy the intro to Portishead's Wandering Star. I really like the way the drums enter into the song. Also, the organ that leads off The Small Faces' Tin Soldier.

Frank Zappa - Dynamo Hum

Can's Oh Yeah immediately pops into my mind, as did Primal Scream's Kill All Hippies.

The film, for me, was an interesting experience as it's the sort of magnificent mess of a film that I haven't seen in a long while. There are marvellous set-pieces in the film, the major battle scenes and Filip's assassination scene among them, and it's there that the film really comes alive. In these scenes Stone displays an excellent visual orientation and conjures up an impressive sense of organized chaos. In the final battle scene, especially, Stone finally achieves what seems to have been the perfect tone for him in this film, that of bombastic operatic grandeur, and it, to me at least, works very well. Then of course the film falls apart again in the following scenes, but I'll get to that later on. Farrell also really comes alive in the battle scenes. There is something almost otherworldly in the way he moves and carries himself, and especially in his face and his eyes. There you see a kind of mixture between hubris, presence in the moment and the feeling of a man of destiny propelled by forces much beyond him. Also, Val Kilmer was very good in the film. However, one major problem for me is that for all the information the film tries to cram in, at just a few minutes shy of three hours, it's much too short, making much of the film seem extremely abrieviated, as it's forced to abandon it's lines of thought constantly, which makes for a pretty frustrating experience a lot of the time. Ebert summed up this aspect of the film rather nicely (indeed, I share most of his opinions of the film, with a few exceptions). As a result, the film falls apart at rather constant intervals, but somehow manages to pull itself together briefly only to fall apart again when it's forced to abandon it to keep the running time down. I also disliked the use of a narrator, as it mostly felt rather clumsily interjected into the film. Also Stone, never one prone to understatement, probably for reasons of ambition, like Ebert stated, has a tendency towards severe overstatement much of the time, it's the operatic tone which doesn't work, possibly because the scenes aren't given enough time for the rhythms to develop and gain resonance, and the same can be said for Vangelis' score, which rather than underline the emotional currents of the scene drowns them out, but it, very much like the film, occasionally comes alive to a more sympathetic effect. So, the film left me in a very interesting state of mind. The great stuff in the film felt really great and, in a way, very stirring. Yet these are moments pulled from a disjointed mess of a film, which reduces their impact. Yet a have certain weird fondness for the film, as it is a failure, but in a rather spectacular fashion. Good film? Perhaps not. But one of the more interesting cinematic experiences I've had this year. Well, that was quite the rambling post. If anyone actually made it all the way through, I probably owe you an apology or something.

Today I rewatched Peckinpah's The Getaway for the first time in years. 'Twas plenty good. Despite his flaws I love Peckinpah. The action scenes in this are expertly shot and edited, as is to be expected, and Peckinpah manages to summon up an apropriate sense of escalating frenzy. Sure there are problems with the film, among others Ali MacGraw, while not as bad in it as I remembered, is too bland to carry her role. Not as great as The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid or Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia, but this is still top notch Peckinpah. Steve McQueen is the king of pragmatic cool.

Over the last couple of days I've picked up the following: Once Upon a Time in America El Cid The Heroes of Telemark Dracula

Can - Ege Bamyasi Brian Eno - Ambient 1 - Music for Airports Miles Davis - In a Silent Way In a Silent Way is playing right now.

Up here in northern Sweden there is a bit of snow right now, I'd say about an inch or two, or in the part where I live atleast, I'd imagine there is more snow in the inland, especially around the mountains.

Well, Un Chien Andalue features an eyeball being sliced open in the opening scene and Eisenstein's Strike features a bull being slaughtered and its blood being poured over a map. Those were in 1928 and 1924 respectively, but I don't know if they signalled in more graphic violence in film or not, but they're early examples.

If we're talking american cinema, then gtd is essentially right in naming Bonnie & Clyde, as that's the movie that more or less put the final nail in the coffin of the Hays Code. Then again, this all depends on the definition of graphic violence.

My humour doesn't always play very well, message board or not, since part of it is based on me deadpanning everything. Nevertheless, my sense humour is primarily based on absurdities, sarcasm and bizarre pop culture references, that I'm usually the only one to get since I'm such a huge nerd.

I just ordered the following: Can - Ege Bamyasi Ennio Morricone - Once Upon a Time in the West

Mercury Rev - All is Dream Bruce Springsteen - Darkness at the Edge of Town Joy Division - Closer Popol Vuh - Einsjäger und Siebenjäger

The great opening scenes edition: 1. Aguirre - Wrath of God 2. Once Upon a Time in the West 3. Stalker 4. Persona 5. Repulsion

My favourite episodes are probably Cape Feare, Homer vs the City of New York and Treehouse of Horror V. Now some nice qoutes: From Stark Raving Dad: Burns: Why is that man in pink! Smithers: Oh, that's Homer Simpson, sir. He's one of your boobs from Sector 7-G. Burns: Simpson, eh? Well, judging by his outlandish attire, he's some sort of free-thinking anarchist. Smithers: I'll call security, sir. Burns: Excellent. Yes, these color monitors have already paid for themselves... From Blood Feud: Homer: Hello, my name is Mr. Burns. I believe you have a letter for me. Postal Clerk: Okay, Mr. Burns, what's your first name? Homer: I don't know. From Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy Homer: Sir! Uh, hello sir! Yes, you look like a man who needs help satisfying his wife. So -- [man slugs him in the face] Ow! Oh...I guess people have some sort of _moral_ objection to our sex drug.

For lunch I had some pasta and bratwurst with a glass of milk.

Perhaps I should go for a bizarre spaghetti western I was thinking about a few years ago. Basically a vengeful ghost (this part would preferably be left ambiguos) returning to take down a warlord who's enslaved a small mining community. The warlord would be based on MacBeth, his wife on Medea, and his mistress on Lady MacBeth. Basically it would all end in a revolt from the community with a huge, spectacular battle scene. After the dust has settled we see the warlord walking around the ruins of his fortress coming across the vengeful ghost. Warlord: "I thought I killed you" Ghost: "You did" Bang. Ghost kills warlord. Granted, this would all probably be pretty silly (not just because I'm ripping stuff off left and right) but it's a fun concept to play around with.

I like Eno's Music for Airports, as well as Tangerine Dream's more ambient-like early outings (Zeit in particular). I guess some of Faust's stuff could be loosely classified as ambient as well. I guess there's much other good krautrock that could loosely be classified as ambient as well.

I just ordered the following stuff: The Southerner The Train Targets Hatari! Taste the Blood of Dracula